Five things we learned from South Carolina's first SEC win over Texas

South Carolina didn’t just end its 13-game losing streak on Saturday; it dominated from start to finish in picking up a great win.

After going 54 days without a victory, the Gamecocks (11-16, 1-13 SEC) got in the win column for the first time this year in SEC play. They did it by beating Texas 84-69 at Colonial Life Arena.

Here are five things we learned from watching the way South Carolina performed on Saturday.

It’s been awhile…

Before Saturday, South Carolina hadn’t experienced much joy in recent weeks. In the midst of a 13-game losing streak, six of its losses came by five points or fewer. Most of the other games were blowout losses. But this skid could’ve ended much sooner than it actually did.

Instead, the Gamecocks went through some really tough times. But with the win over the Longhorns, it’s their first win since defeating Presbyterian on Dec. 30, 2024 to wrap up non-conference play. It’s also their first conference win since March 9, 2024, when it defeated Mississippi State 93-89.

Of course, with this being their first SEC win, they will avoid making what would have been some unfortunate history. There have only been two SEC teams to ever go 0-18 in conference play: 2018-19 Vanderbilt and 2023-24 Missouri.

Even if it ends up being 1-17 in SEC play, that’s still a lot better than going winless. Sure, it’s still a bad season, but at least they won’t be in the history books for all of the wrong reasons.

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This one meant a lot to the team

You could immediately tell how important it was to the players and coaches to get over the hump and find a way to win. Whether they admit it or not, they obviously hear the noise of what’s at stake and how this season hasn’t gone the way anyone wanted it to. But when that final buzzer sounded, there were a lot of smiles and good vibes flowing.

Collin Murray-Boyles summed it up perfectly: it was a “sigh of relief” to be able to win this game. Even Lamont Paris agreed with him on that. It’s been tough to win games in a league that will go down as one of the best for a single season in college basketball history. South Carolina knows this better than anyone with the losses it has been dealt.

However, if there’s one thing you can’t deny about this group, they have yet to quit on the season. Sure, they might not have looked great in some of their losses but that doesn’t mean they gave up in those games. If they had given up on themselves, they wouldn’t have beaten Texas. That all goes back to Paris continually instilling belief.

A dominant first half won them the game

Getting into the actual game itself, South Carolina played a fantastic first half of basketball to set the tone for how the night would go. The Gamecocks held Texas to 22 points on 8-of-29 shooting and forced six turnovers. Speaking of turnovers, an issue that has plagued this team all year long, they only had two at the break.

Another underrated key to the first-half success: free throws. South Carolina went 14-for-16 at the line in the opening 20 minutes. It took advantage of the Longhorns entering the bonus in the last few minutes and went to the line a lot.

Offensively, the Gamecocks weren’t amazing by any means. They shot 38.7 percent from the field, but as we’ll get into here in a second, they found success through their star player.

By the break, they were already leading by 18 points. And while there was still a lot of game left, it never felt like they were going to blow the lead. They were simply the better team.

CMB took matters into his own hands

There’s that iconic end credits scene from Avengers: Age of Ultron where Thanos, the eventual main villain of the later Avengers films, is teased with him putting on the infinity gauntlet. He then drops his famous line, “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” In a way, that’s how it looked with how Murray-Boyles took over on Saturday.

The sophomore forward finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes before fouling out. That’s what you come to expect with a player of his talents. But the things he did in the first half were why South Carolina won the way it did.

For months now, Paris has spoken at length about how he wants to see Murray-Boyles take more shots and have the ball in his hands more often. The thing with him is that he’s always been selfless and looking to make passes to his open teammates. That’s fine and all, but the rest of the team doesn’t make their shots consistently like he does.

With the floor being so spread out in the first half, it allowed for Murray-Boyles to create more opportunities for himself. He went for 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting, much more in line with what Paris hoped he would eventually play. He was also fantastic on defense with three blocked shots. All of them were highlight-reel plays, too.

If South Carolina is going to turn this one win into something more, this is what Murray-Boyles will need to do. He’s a special talent. He deserves to have the ball in his hands more than anyone else right now.

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Lack of turnovers was huge

As previously mentioned, South Carolina has been very turnover prone for much of this season. It turned the ball over 18 times against LSU on Tuesday, which proved to be a big reason why it fell behind and never truly recovered. In this latest game, though, the Gamecocks were much better about limiting their mistakes as they ended up with eight total turnovers.

Basketball is a lot easier to play when mistakes aren’t constantly being made. The game flows a lot better, unless there are a lot of fouls called, of course. But it was good to see how this part of the game played out because it really was the difference between winning and losing.

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